* SABRE: British car insurance underwriter Sabre will seek to raise around 213 million pounds ($279.22 million) in an initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange in December, the company said on Monday.

* UNILEVER: Unilever’s Dutch Works Council is threatening to call for strike action across global factories if potential buyers of its margarine business don’t agree to protect jobs and pension guarantees, The Telegraph reported on Saturday.

* RYANAIR: Ryanair is to increase the number of pilots it employs directly and hire more staff to respond to their queries as part of a new programme to improve its pilot management, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters.

* BRITAIN ECONOMY: British employers expect to raise pay for their workers only a little despite strong demand for staff and already low unemployment, according to an industry survey that suggested no immediate respite for the country’s squeezed households.

* GOLD: Gold prices edged lower early on Monday in the wake of their biggest one-day percentage loss in about two weeks in the previous session, weighed down as the U.S. dollar firmed.

* OIL: Oil trading was cautious on Monday amid ongoing tensions in the Middle East and after a rising rig count in the United States suggested producers there are preparing to increase output.

* The UK blue chip FTSE 100 index closed down 0.7 percent at 7,432.99 points on Friday, as shares could not shake a downbeat mood and suffered their biggest weekly drop in two months as retail stocks continued to weigh, with Burberry and Bunzl leading losses.

* For more on the factors affecting European stocks, please click on: cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?pageId=livemarkets